Finn finally catching up with some of your adventures. Glad to see you are still at it. Great photos as always. Inspiring....

I'm currently brain storming on how to make my money making skills seasonal or portable......

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Thank you, again I'm slacking catching up.... but what can a guy do?...

Making money seasonally is good, plenty of time to get LOST, but it has many drawbacks too....
Like when you are on a fixed budget with no work in sight and something like this comes up that requires almost a complete engine rebuild.
I done worn out The Mighty Husaberg already, should have bought a cush drive hub a while ago.

OK, technically speaking, having a Garmin Montana with the Baja 1000 pre-run track loaded and plenty of SCORE mile markers and little yet sometimes elusive pink ribbons they had put up to mark the trail I was not really or technically LOST.

But, by my motto, and way of life I was LOST being alone, far from home and most importantly with not one fucking thing on mind besides the terrain in front of me, which happened to be a dark screwed up washed out dirt road in Mexico about 50 miles from pavement. The LOST feeling was indeed there, my mind bouncing back in forth between focusing on the trail not crashing and calculating how long it might take me to get to Loreto if this continues on like this.

Will I have the strength to keep riding like this, after a full day of living?

Should I just try to find a flat enough spot and pitch my tent?

Is there anyone behind me that will find me if I go down and get hurt?

Was that a giraffe running in the shadows I just saw?....

In retrospect there might not have been any big animals running next to me in the nighttime shadows, and I didn't need to lay there bleeding hoping someone would find me. Me and The Mighty Husaberg were a good team, though I was questioning how well TMH would do in defending me from the crazy things I saw running around us.
I'm sure it sounds cheesy, but just l like in the movie Dust to Glory when the racers were talking about the crazy shadows one sees when riding in Baja at night I was seeing all kind of weird shit in my peripherals, daring myself to turn me head, taking my eyes off the trail flying by if but for a moment to "catch" it and figure out what it was.

Never did catch one, but you could not convince me they weren't there running with me that night.

The road improved somewhat, allowing for faster speeds and the miles clicked by.

A couple hours later.

I found a good looking motel with secured parking and a bar onsite, choosing to stay in town instead of being alone somewhere, images of scary things still haunting me.
It wasn't 10 minutes and I had a delicious gringo special, the oh so predictable Margarita.

And then I met Finn.

No, I'm not speaking in metaphors or was having another grand self realization moment, I met another guy named Finn. He was from France....... that's right next to Fraaance.

He was there from University of Iowa in a group of 3 folks, a professor and 2 students doing research on some kind of bugs that was all too interesting at the time, but is somehow is not coming out right now after a little wine.

Anyways, as I unpacked the bike, drink in hand I met this group and agreed to go get some dinner. It seems like it was a good agreement, they had obviously spent way too much time together and were happy to have a Guest with a story, and I was also glad to have some company. (and to be alive)

Good deal.

I could go on and on about delicious food, drinks flowing, great conversation, feelings of accomplishment, etc, etc, etc... but I wont.

That's Finn

The night went far too late, somehow the conversation about one kind of bug and it's relationship with a certain plant only found here, combined with Baja scuttlebutt, political views and such kept me up past midnight. I knew the next day would come very fast and expected it to be just as long and challenging as this one had been.....

Time warp.

I was right and not but seemingly 2 or 3 measly minutes after I laid down my alarm went off at sunrise.

The "road" outside of Loreto was a good way to start the day, even with my head pounding and muscles aching.

Followed by the common sights in Baja of an old mission church from the times when some people felt the need to force their beliefs and "save" indigenous people by building big structures to impress, gain power, money and influence.

Then as the road changed and I started to follow along a river I was able to witness evolution in the making.
Thousands of them.

Moving south, still LOST, life is good, blue skies, roads were good with miles ticking by heading toward the Pacific Coast. What more could I want?

The same butterflies common in the Midwest I had seen over the summer.... did they fly all the way here?
I rode through swarms and felt bad for killing more than a few of these beautiful creatures as I flew through space in Baja. (what do you call a bunch of butterflies? Flock, swarm, group?)...

And then it started as the terrain changed while getting closer to the coast and turning more south from my current western direction.

Sand, and whoops.

I was getting closer to my immediate goal, but it seemed Baja had a few tricks up her sleeve yet and wasn't going to let me get to LaPaz without working harder for it.

Still had to make time to see the little things that makes this place so special...

Matter of fact Baja was about to present the biggest challenge yet, and something that really made me regret not getting a full night sleep.
100+ miles of sandy whoops.

All afternoon.

Legs pumping and burning, riding the fine line between the speeds I had (not) enough skill to ride at without crashing and yet not slow enough that I rode up and down each whoop, that were in places over 3 feet. Miles and miles of it, and the worst part was everytime I went over hilltop, I could see another 20 miles of the same thing laid out before me. You had to ride in the ruts the 4 wheeled vehicles had made in the deep sand, where the bushes and cactuses were constantly banging against my handgaurds and occasionally my arms and shoulders.
This was LIVING!

After hours and hours of bouncing around I finally made it to some small town on the Pacific coast, just in time before running out of fuel, both for the Husa and me. (does it really matter which town?)...

I picked a small cafe that seemed to specialize in seafood and waited 30 minutes while they made me some ridiculously fresh homemade soup. Good to sit down in a chair and NOT be In Motion for a minute.

Not much time to spare though, I still had a long ways to LaPaz and the sun wasn't waiting around for me. Anything but night riding in this... I headed back out of town and to the trail, determined to get to LaPaz tonight, still hundreds of miles away. (the Baja 1000 course this year was actually 1140 miles)
The course would get better, I was almost done with all the whoops, there's no way it can keep going on like that.

I was wrong, there would be no easy way, it was all the same, I was stuck on this road forever.

I've been lurking around this site for years, but after reading this thread I felt compelled to create an account and reply.

I've read through all 97 pages of Lost's motorcycle journeys through life, and to say I was entertained is an understatement, this thread has been life-changing for me. Too often I find myself not doing things because of the "What Ifs", but seeing how Lost just attacks life and does not think twice about it, has inspired me not just in my own motorcycle journeys but in many aspects of life.

LostRider I strongly believe you need to write a book/novel about your motorcycle Journeys. I've read many novels about motorcycle adventures (Ghost Rider, Jupiter's Travels, Long Way Series, etc) but your story stands out amongst them. You have a way of really connecting and expressing your feelings and emotions to the reader.

Augh. Stories like this make me shake my head at people's absolute stupidity. Why the hell couldn't she just turn around at Teakettle Junction? AND.. why the hell do people insist on leaving their GPSes set to 3D mode? They don't show nearly enough detail that way. If you go to Overhead view, you can clearly see yourself in relation to other roads. And if you can't read a map, you have no business driving. ANYWHERE.

And while I'm griping, Garmin is somewhat to blame for this too. Their own maps could be a helluva lot better, the way they render them on the display could be better, and the way the voice prompts work could also be better.

Augh. Stories like this make me shake my head at people's absolute stupidity. Why the hell couldn't she just turn around at Teakettle Junction? AND.. why the hell do people insist on leaving their GPSes set to 3D mode? They don't show nearly enough detail that way. If you go to Overhead view, you can clearly see yourself in relation to other roads. And if you can't read a map, you have no business driving. ANYWHERE.

And while I'm griping, Garmin is somewhat to blame for this too. Their own maps could be a helluva lot better, the way they render them on the display could be better, and the way the voice prompts work could also be better.

Rob

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I couldn't agree more. GPS and Darwinism are killing a lot of people lately. I just thought the sticker on the pot at Teakettle Jct (again, at the 3:47 mark in the vid) was humorous...given who put it there.

Interesting story, with a good laugh at the 3:47 second mark...if you don't mind being Lost!

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Last Spring we came up Lippencott and on our way to the Racetrack found a couple in a Volvo with a flat. We stopped briefly and tried to help, thought we could offer a few plugs but he hit a rock so hard the cast wheel was junk. He already had the mini spare on and said he'd be fine. We stopped at the Racetrack and a few ninutes later he came by doing at least 40 mph. Next time we saw him was between Tea Kettle and the Crater, the mini tire was gone and he had rolled the wheel right down on the front rotor and punched a hole in the oil pan. I wonder what that tow bill cost him?

I've been lurking around this site for years, but after reading this thread I felt compelled to create an account and reply.

Thanks LostRider!

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Thank you Mr Trash, that's very kind of you, glad I could also help you come out of the closet and start posting!
Come on in the water is fine.
Life is short, too short to not live it to the fullest and follow your dreams or speak your mind. I hope you find your path and get Lost yourself in whatever ways makes you smile!
I need to go read through here again, life moves so fast it's easy to get Lost and forget things...

And thank you Mr.Doggle, I'm healing up nicely and will be back in the saddle soon.
I've been working on a big update for this thread, I promise to finish at least one of the stories I have going.

Super D, that's just awesome and made me laugh so hard it hurts! No seriously, with broken ribs it really did hurt. Thanks for putting a smile on my face and sharing that.

dun do dunnnnn LOST IN DEATH VALLEY!!!

It does amazing me the stupidity of people to be out in DV so unprepared and so stupid as to follow a GPS on roads that are clearly marked as 4x4. If that lady would have actually stopped to buy a park pass which is required but not really enforced, the ranger would have warned her, she'd have had a park map, etc...
Also funny how 20/20 can make the story by blaming garmin instead of making a story about stupid people.

Was there a second half to the story? I assume they made it out since they were interviewing her, somehow dodging Darwin's Natural Selection test she so obviously failed.